Mobileye has revealed it could build its own lidar sensors in-house with plans to introduce a self-driving system in 2025.
The Intel-owned company announced last month that it had selected Luminar to supply it with lidar units starting in 2022. This announcement sent the share price of Luminar sky-high. However, Mobileye chief executive Amnon Shashua has since revealed that for 2025, the company is developing its own lidar sensor.
According to Reuters, Mobileye’s lidar will use Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCV) technology which is different than the tech used by Luminar. Shashua revealed Mobileye’s solution will drive down costs to the point where its lidar can be used in consumer vehicles.
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“We believe the cost of an entire self-driving system can be in the few thousand dollar range, and that brings us into a consumer vehicle position,” he said. “If we can make this work, it will also be used for robotaxis. But we have time to make that decision five years from today.”
The first lidar units that will be deployed by Mobileye and produced by Luminar will cost between $10,000 and $20,000 each and will be targeted at robo-taxis.
Mobileye has deals to supply its current camera-based driver assistance systems to the likes of BMW, Volkswagen, and Nissan. Shashua revealed that the company recently deployed a self-driving prototype onto the streets of Munich and with just a week of setup, the vehicle was able to navigate the city’s streets without driver input.
“This is a critical milestone – this is what you need for scalability. If you want to have a system at the consumer level, it has to be able to drive everywhere,” he told Reuters.
